There is a sig ignore option...Feel free to use it...With my compliments... ...

Bacon.

Spike was the leader of the Red Team in the block party challenge. Also, if you want to stretch things, he might have been the leader with his kid partner, but I'm not 100% sure--the kid might have been the more mature of the two.

Salt Pork FOR THE WIN !!!! LOL

You did fine, except for when you equated Richard with Marcel.

Richard is like a kid discovering something neat he can do and wants you to try it, too. Marcel is a smarmy teenager gloating because he can do something and you can't.

You watch these shows with the anticipation that these people might actually know what they are talking about, but time after time you scratch your heads and wonder why these judges seem to just not get it. WHY are Lisa and Spike still there? It is clearly easy to see that they are not even on the same playing field as some of the others, well no one is obviously on the same level as Richard, if he isn't the hands down winner than there is a serious problem with this show. Maybe Dale made the mistake of trying to appease Lisa and keep things cool, but really she shouldn't of even been there. Dale clearly was one of the best, and it is sad to see him go, especially when two such inferior chefs remain. Just watching the show you can instantly see who has talent, integrity, drive, and its not that difficult to see who should easily win, but time after time with these reality shows you see the characters with the most personality staying. Makes you wonder. Are they really looking for the Top Chef or just the Top Ratings.

Probably, but not necessarily. Restaurant Wars has been known to bring out the worst in people before.

Um.....CJ and Tre were season 3. Sam and Ilan were season 2.

After this season you really shouldn't be wondering anymore.

LOL......but my point is that Stephanie spent a lot of time in the elements challenge refereeing between Dale & Lisa. Spike, like with so many other things this season, couldn't be bothered.

TRIPE! LOL!

I like Tripe. I'ts yummy.

Nite kids......

I know. I just couldn't help myself...

G'nite, Jimboy...

Hey Guys/Gals,

I guess I'm one of the newbies who recently signed up to show his or her distaste with the Judges' ruling. I was estatic that Stephanie won, since she was an extremely strong competitor throughout this competition provided she doesn't choke - quickfires come to mind. I was pissed when Dale was let go because here was a chef who won several elimination challenges, was consistantly in the top 3, and won several quick fire challenges. (Stephanie, Dale, and Richard was my top 3) The old Robot adage comes to mind - "Does not compute." I still don't see how Lisa got off the chopping block again while a very talented chef was dismissed. To me, it really damages the integrity of the head judges when this kind of blantant judging happens over and over again over the course of the show.

Also any of you getting tired of Antonia constantly whinning about how Dale makes Asian food? I mean he's Asian?!? Give me a break! Also some of the food he won with wasn't Asian food but clearly food with Asian influences...

I guess the only show worth watching now is Step it up and Dance (heres hoping for Nick or Mochi to win)

G'Night all...

I know many people have already said this BUT.....I am really upset/mad about tonight's show. I too, joined just because I wanted to rant.

It seems to me that Restaurant Wars is almost a death wish episode. Two seasons in a row, IMO, we lost the best contenders for Top Chef (Trey and now Dale). I know a lot of people didn't really like Dale on the show, but I thought he was the most talented and consistent one. If he wasn't winning quick fires or elimination challenges, he was a close second or third! All of the shows are running together, so I may be mistaken, but it seems like whenever Dale was on the bottom, Lisa was right there next to him.

I know Top Chef is about being just that, the top chef. But I hate the comparisons to real life. Top Chef is a reality T.V. show. I guarantee that if Lisa were to step into any kitchen and act like she does on the show, she'd be thrown out. Can the people who step up and assume leadership rolls do that? No. They have to just work with what they have. I think Dale did the best he could with the team he was given.

I'm still baffled why Lisa is still there. I think she should have been gone last week, and again this week. I almost wish that Dale would have just let her run the team because I bet he would still be here.

IMO the only season that has had the BEST CHEF turn out to be the winner is Season 1.

Sorry about the long rant, but I was furiuos after watching tonight.


PS-I wish Antonia would just shut up about Dale cooking Asian food. IT DOESN'T MATTER. Look at Ilan--he had a Spanish influence throughout the entire show and won it.

*tongue firmly planted in cheek* Really? I didn't know...

I vote for the kid, too. Thanks for the info.

did I say that? who was I talking about? oh well...

Stephanie was clearly responsible for the win in the Elements team. She was able to lead by example and personality rather than by force and cohersion. However, I don't necessarily blame Spike for Lisa and Dale failing to work together. He bugs me for enjoying their conflict so much and deliberately manipulating the other two.

My favortie part of this episde was Spike making the sock puppet jesture to Dale as he went off the deep end in the stew room. LMAO I was dying.

yeah, and monkeys might fly out of my @$$ too.

I completely missed that! And because I want to watch this epi again Bravo probably won't show it until next season...

I'm still trying to figure out what lisa didn't F-up on this episode.

Wow. Fun night! I'm drunk. I gotta watch out for foot fungus. I need a shower. And I gotta pee. G'night people!

Um no it doesn't bother anybody at all-really... ...

Why the hell is Lisa still in the competition?! Dale, while abrasive and confrontational, is clearly the more talented of the two. I was expecting to see Richard, Dale, and Antonia in the final three. Lisa has been on the chopping block several times and yet still manages to stay for another round. I don't quite follow the judges logic...

Night! See you next week!

So now Spike or Lisa makes it to the final four!? What a travesty.

[expletive deleted] you, Bravo.

WHAT THE HECK... seriously... Lisa... not off???? At the bottom how long? And you kick off Dale? I mean seriously... I'm not a cook, but seriously I believe I could take her on and win... She's a cranky, aggrivated, (insert mean adjective here), no not really doesn't have to be mean... it's true. I haven't like anything she has done! I woudn't want food from a mean cook. JEEZ GET IT RIGHT.

FLIPPIN RIGHT!!!!!!!!!

So hey, Bravo, are you going to eliminate Spike and then have another shocker with Richard going home so you can finally get the woman Top Chef that you're obviously desperate for?

Way to screw up a good show. Bastards.

Dale "won" the EC spot by coin toss...

I'm done watching now to be honest, I can't be bothered to waste time on a show where they every [expletive deleted] season eliminate one of the most talented contestants and let someone who would be borderline underqualified to run a mcdonalds get into the top 4.

Someone...........Please please please get rid of LISA!! She would throw anyone under a bus to save her butt.

It's about time she get judged by her dishes alone and not her scheming to undermine anyone on her team.

She and her neverending scowl has to go!!

That was freaking bee-you-tee-full!!

I knew when Bourdain walked into the kitchen that this was an inspired happenstance. I love Collichio, but who is better for this challenge than the man who wrote "Kitchen Confidential"? Who knows this stuff better, and can articulate it as well? Nobody. That's the answer. Period.

Richard, Stephanie and, Antonia worked extremely well together. They're all pros, and they know to work with an even temperament. Their food looked excellent, and they opened with style and grace.

Dale and Lisa, on the other hand, made bad choices. Caramel Scallops? Nobody needed to tell me that tasted bad, as it looked horrid, and I can't think of two things that are less suited to be paired. Laska and Sticky Rice? I've eaten some sublime renditions, and about twice as many bad ones, and you have Bourdain right there. I'm sure he's eaten a few more than I.

Spike is one smart sumvabitch! He took part in the one decent thing in the kitchen, and, then, got the hell out. I'm almost thinking he's brilliant. He avoided it all.

And Dale leaves. The only thing that would have been sweeter is if they had bounced Lisa out with him. I'll have to make do.

As good a jumping in place as any, I thought the soup was a pretty ballsy move on Lisa's part given that she couldn't cook shrimp properly before. It was interesting to see her asking for input. Dale told her all he was getting was smoke. She apparently doesn't realize that "where there's smoke there's fire" is not a culinary maxim. He wanted heat and she just kept giving him more smoke. End result? Campfire in a bowl.

Given that she had problems with rice before and made more rice that was pretty ballsy too. (Hormone imbalance would explain so much.) The fact that her rice came out looking like baby vomit and wood chips was not so much of a surprise. Even less of a surprise was that it was "Dale's fault".

Smart move of the show was Antonia picking Nikki. Nikki wasn't my fave, but I thought Dale had more to do with that team losing wedding wars. And whether she salvaged the pasta or not she was the one that caught that Richard hadn't cleaned the clams well enough. Richard is strong with flavor combinations and making food interesting, but basic technique could be his downfall; remember those salmon scales?

Steph getting the overall win was good for me, but I have to say that I can't imagine that Concord grape sauce being all that tasty; seems to me that cloyingly sweet is more likely.

I think that the low point of he show was when Lisa lost that coin toss. I would have liked to see her take a leadership role since the only skill she's shown consistent ability in iis throwing people under the bus. Would have been nice to see if she could be a little broader. I did laugh a few times when she was trying to get Spike to hold Dale down so she could back over him again. Especially since Spike seemed to be doin a "who me? say something bad about someone on my team?" act.

My personal preference would have been a double elimination. But as it stands right now I dont think I need to watch the rest of the season. Lisa got way too much face time tonight; she was even the one who presented their menu, not Dale. She's annoying enough that I don't want to watch her anymore. At all. Ever. And seriously, if she's lasted this long I don't have much respect for the Top Chef process picking a relevant chef.

hope everyone votes for dale as their fan favorite. bet the judges will be surprised, just like we all were with their decision tonight. so everyone start voting

I just registered here to vent about my disgust with this show.
-Sam got screwed in season 2
-Tre got screwed in season 3
-Dale gets screwed in season 4
The hurts the credibility of the judges and the show! If I wanted to watch a reality series that was fake all about drama, I would have tuned into the Kardashions (sp?). I thought this was a real competitive show about Top chefs. I'm over this show... it's crap. Richard, Dale and Stephanie are CLEARLY the tops chefs in this season. Spike, Lisa and even Anonia has no business there. She has a lot of nerve complaining about Dale only cooking Asian food. First of all that's not all he's cooked; it's the majority of what he's cooked, but he's cooked other dishes. Furthermore, Anonia hasn't cooked ANYTHING other than beef and Lamb on this show and half of the time it's sucked! I can't stand hypocrites. The judges are stupid; the kicked off the wrong person YET AGAIN. I'm done with this show! It's a joke!

LOL, true. If you were paying attention you'd know that at Mia Buddha baby vomit is a dessert.

Is Antonio EVER going to cook anything other than beef and lamb? It's compelte joke that her, Lisa and Spike are still there! But then again, so is this show!

OK. Can't sleep. Allergies have gotten the better of me. Down to 81 people in here? Is the love fest continuing?

I find this show a joke.

Where did they find these people?

I mean I won't have any of these "chefs" anywhere near my line.

I don't care if you can cook or not and it debatable if they really can.

Well, except Richard. He's a good rotisseur.

The main skill I'm looking in my line is if you can shut up and just do what I want you to do.

These people may be "Chefs", but these people sure aren't cooks.

Well AB did ask who picked it at Mia Buddha and pointed out that it set a higher expectation that Warehouse Kitchen's. And there was a fun moment when he asked who picked it and Spike claimed it was all of them. Lisa wanted to deny that -- probably accurately -- but realized it would be much harder to throw two people under the bus than it would be to just stick to her original plan to sabatoge her executive chef.

I just had to come and say this Top Chef...


I'm pretty sure by the number of quick fires that Dale won that Dale was a good chef. He made the most mistakes as an executive chef and probably should have went, but it makes no sense that his colleague was not booted off.

She has complained that someone sabotaged her dish the week before and make bad rice. What was her excuse this week, Dale selected the wrong rice for her to cook?! Either she can cook rice or she can't.

I think the elimination boiled down to who was worse. It should have been her.

Dale's tears were unexpected and surprising. He didn't completely lose his internal control, but watching him hurry around the kitchen made me feel like he was on the brink of going off about the problems he was experiencing. I'm not sure what a noisy or a crowded kitchen looks like, but if the meals come out poorly it has to do with someone losing control over the menu somewhere along the way.

I'm a lot like Dale! We just don't trust people and we have a need to do it all ourselves! I work with computers and things can get hairy at a particular time of the day! I usually place myself right in the middle of the chaos thinking only I can make sure it all works out! We both stress so I can relate! Lisa is a bit of a saboteur! I love her complaining about Dale's lack of leadership! When you tell her something she's ticked off and when you ignore her, it's your fault too! She needs her hand held all night long! Week in, week out with the scowling and arms folded! HOW DOES SHE SURVIVE? lol!!

I registered tonight to say almost exactly what you just said! I'm sooo irritated!

btw I have been a diehard fan from show 1 season 1 and read this board every week -- but I'm on the West Coast and by the time I get here everything I'd've said has mostly been said already -- so I never bothered to register. I'm sure many of the 'newbies' here today are in similar sitch's.

One thing that really strikes me is that the judges don't seem to have noticed -- or to care -- that Lisa has pulled the similar stunts every time she's been on the chopping block -- which has been A LOT! She whines, she blames, she accuses, and (as pointed out tonight) she has that very agressive body language. Tom frequently makes comments about 'attitude' being a factor in who they choose to leave -- and she certainly does have one -- so what gives?

Also -- I'm more than a little put out that there are NO judge's blogs posted. Cowards!

Every season this happens -- every season viewers try to get across that it's not this artifically induced 'drama' that attracts us to the show - wtf happened to "it's about the food" ?

They say Dale should have been responsible for what Lisa did, but how is he supposed to do that? She doesn't listen to anyone, and her food was crap. With Spike not cooking anything, how is he supposed to serve a full menu without using her nasty food? I think the only thing he really could have done is make Spike cook, then not serve any of her gross food, but then she'd yell about how he was sabatoging her by hiding her food from the judges. Maybe he could mention that he wasn't serving it, but give the judges a taste to highlight how bad her contributions were? I don't know. I think he was just in an impossible situation. Kicking him off for not being able to manage Lisa is like kicking someone off for not being able to fly and breathe fire and sprinkle people with magical pixie dust.
Lisa has been able to slip by purely by luck. Someone always screws up (or is made to look like they screwed up) just slightly more than her. Course, the remaining chefs are the strongest in the bunch, so there will be less error for her to feed off of in the next episode or two (please don't let it be two).
If they need a female Top Chef, what's wrong with Stephanie? She seems really nice and together and her food is generally yummy looking. It's gotta be her or Richard. I would love to hang out with those two (and make them cook for me!)
Anyway, that's my little rant.